How Thinking Local Sold Out an Atsuko Okatsuka Show
Tactical Showcase Series: In this series, Fullintel’s team engages in micro-influence and targeted PR efforts and measures the success. In its first installment, Angus Nguyen, Marketing Director at Fullintel and a serious baker, used a giant cookie and Reddit to expand the reach of comedian Atsuko Okatsuka’s show in Ottawa, Canada, when he noticed the show hadn’t sold out.
Loving the comedian and wanting her to come back to Ottawa, Nguyen took action by pushing a notice out to a local Reddit community and creating viral content to promote the show.
Sometimes a message doesn’t find its audience. Other times the audience creates it, delivers it, and bakes a huge cookie that looks like you to help promote your show.
That’s what happened in early October when Fullintel’s Angus Nguyen – a former MasterChef contestant – noticed that one of his favorite comedian’s shows in Ottawa hadn’t sold out.
“My friends and I know her really well, and there were still a lot of tickets left with less than two weeks before the show,” said Nguyen, adding that Okatsuka’s show sold out nearly everywhere else in the world, but wasn’t aired in Canada due to licensing challenges. “The first thing I did was post on Reddit.”
Reddit is one of the largest forums on the internet, and what makes it an effective tool for local promotion is its very engaged communities. Almost every city has a Reddit community, and if you’re looking for people – especially younger people – it might be the most powerful network for promoting local events.
While its audience isn’t as large as Instagram or Twitter, it is younger and trends toward men.
Fig. 1.0, Reddit Domain Rankings Comparison
| Domain | Domain Rank* |
|---|---|
| reddit.com | #17 |
| instagram.com | #4 |
| twitter.com | #5 |
| wikipedia.org | #9 |
| * Similarweb, July 2023 – Sept. 2023 | |
Fig. 1.1, Reddit’s Demographic Composition Trends Young and Male
| * Similarweb, July 2023 – Sept. 2023 |
On Reddit the post garnered 43 upvotes and almost 20,000 views.
With excitement building, Nguyen took the next step and used his Instagram channel to expand the reach of his efforts.
“I started building out my Instagram account with creative food content earlier this year,” said Nguyen, who can bake cookies and cakes that look like human brains or someone’s face. With that in mind, Nguyen reached out to Okatsuka’s management team, informing them that he was boosting the show and that he’d bring a life-sized cookie of the comedian’s face to give her at the show. They agreed!
Nguyen aligned this with a viral moment from Ottawa’s baking past, the infamous Obama Cookie produced by Moulin de Provence.
Nguyen’s Instagram posts were then boosted by Okatsuka’s own social channels, greatly expanding the message’s reach.
“Before I promoted Atuko’s show my Reels (a type of post on Instagram) I would get between 400 – 500 views, and after, my posts are getting closer to 10,000 views.”
At this point, now engaged with Okatsuka’s team, Nguyen pitched the story to the media. While the Ottawa Citizen was interested, by the time they’d decided to write a story, the show had already sold out.
The end result between Reddit and Instagram, according to our own analysis of discussions related to the show, is that Nguyen’s efforts had a total potential reach of 23.7 million. Of that, Nguyen’s social channels on Reddit and Instagram generated 97 percent of that reach.
View this post on Instagram
So what’s the lesson here?
Whether you work for a venue or are promoting events, don’t forget to take advantage of free local channels to increase your reach. A simple post on Reddit or a creative post on other networks can generate outsized reach and drive sales – even if the traditional media doesn’t get involved.
If you’re thinking about your own social brand management, stepping outside the box can help expand your reach and increase your ability to promote your channel.
